Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Unrest – Grindcore

Grindcore is somewhat of a difficult genre
for me. On the one hand, these bands have incredible enthusiasm and energy, and
they rarely write albums that are too long for their own good. On the other, I
have found that, similar to some black metal bands, this means a total
abandonment of songwriting in favour of constant blasting. The most likely
scenario is that I just haven’t found many grindcore bands that really click
with me yet, but anything with the Unspeakable Axe Records seal of approval
will get me listening. For that reason, I was pleasantly surprised by the quite
obviously titled “Grindcore” by Unrest. In staying true to the genre, this
album does have a lot of blastbeats, plenty of yelling/grunting (just slightly
more brutal than one would find in hardcore punk), and of course, short but
energetic songs.

This begs the question, what does Unrest do
well that I haven’t heard in my admittedly limited exposure to grindcore? The
first thing is the production. Though the drums are loud, they are not
overpowering. Instead, they allow the guitars to be audible at all times. This
of course brings up the next important point: Unrest brings the riffs.
Seriously, there is not a moment on this album devoid of great riffs. Sometimes
they are thrashier/punkier (showing homage to the genre’s roots), while at
other times they are more straightforward tremolo picking. In either case, they’re
always impressive, and the thick tone makes this incredibly clear (just listen
to the opening chords of “Faith Is A Hearse” to hear this). The drumming on this album is also stellar. The biggest selling point is its variation. Unrest's drummer knows how to vary up beats to move from frantic mayhem to creating an instant circle pit frenzy, and this makes the album much more interesting than if he had simply played the same blasting beat for the whole record.

One of my common criticisms with this style
of music is that it feels like bands avoid writing unique songs in favour of
full-album experiences. To some extent that is true here; this album is
definitely best appreciated when listened to in one sitting. However, it’s also
easy to groove along to the pounding rhythms of “Inaction”, or the
mosh-inducing ending to “Protest Culture”. The aforementioned “Faith Is A
Hearse” brings some atmospheric qualities to the music, keeping things slow for
the first half of the song, and delivering some powerful emotions. Ultimately, though
my overall rating may not reflect it, this is a truly awesome release. It has
opened my eyes to a new style of music that I’ve been largely unable to
appreciate before, and while I don’t anticipate seeking out much grindcore now,
I will be revisiting Unrest’s debut album quite a bit.